Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Good Morning! Happy Tuesday. The sketch is posted at Tuesday Morning Sketches and we are sponsored by Meljen's Designs. Melissa was so sweet to give us a few images to play with. It's really funny, you'll see what I mean when you to the TMS blog, Debbie and I used the same image and we colored it almost exactly alike! Bonnie thought Meljen's had colored digis. LOL!

Well, so here's my version of the card. The sketch is by Theresa (fun sketch!).

I think I would like to be sipping Mexican hot chocolate from that mug. Mmmm... I also had fun being able to use some mulberry leaves that I have had for years! I'm using my stash, how about that.

I hope you head on over to TMS to join us in the fun. I also had to join in Just Us Girls challenge this week, too. It's a photo inspiration. I went with the gorgeous fall colors.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Good Morning! Happy Monday friends. I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was good even though I had a headache on Saturday that knocked me off my feet. I was useless the entire day. But yesterday was good. I still had some pain, but I could at least function a bit. It still took me most of the day to create three cards, but hey, that's OK.

This week's challenge at Paper Pretties is to add bling. We all like bling, right? I played with a digi stamp set that is being re-released this week. This is Sweet Treat.

I had a lot of fun with this card. It was very challenging for me. I chose to work with the sketch at The Sweet Stop and added in the challenge from The Kraft Journal (bangles and bows). I didn't really know what bangles meant, so I deduced it this way: bangles is a type of bracelet, bracelets are bling. It fits, right? If not, that's OK, too. I had fun. The colors were a lot of fun to put together, too. Who knew that Razzleberry would go so well with Kraft? I love the combination! And you gotta love this little guy who is enjoying his mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I was hoping this view would show the glittery balloon and the jewels in the doily part. Not so much. Well, maybe a little. I also used a new background stamp that was recently added to my collection of Raisin Boat stamps. I think this card is fun and very happy!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Thanks for coming back for my 2nd post of the day. I've posted the MTME Pretty Sketch on the MTME Blog and it's a lot fun. I think so anyway. Here's my card...

I love this new set that was added to the store recently. This is called Be Supportive. This stamp set paired perfectly with the Amour digi paper. I think it turned out really pretty, if I say so myself.

The team created some pretty amazing cards, too. Wait til you see! Head on over to the MTME blog to see.

Good Morning! Happy Thursday. It's been very busy at work so I am super happy to see the downside of this week. It's also when I get to share with you another fun challenge at Delightful Challenges.

This week we're stitching. Faux or real. I had to go with faux. I have to tell you that I did pull out my sewing machine to see if it had miraculously healed itself. The last time I used it I was making a quilt for a gift and my bobbin kept jamming. Well now the presser foot lever doesn't work. I think it's time to send my sewing machine to sewing machine cemetery. I'm really sad, that machine helped me make my daughter's baby bedding, a couple of her dresses, pajamas for my kids when they were little and a few quilts. It should've had a longer life, but....

Anyway, here's my card, faux stitching and all.

I realized that I can't sew with a paper piercer and pen any better than I can with a sewing machine. Anyway, anyone wanna gift me a Janome craft machine? They're only about $60 on Amazon. LOL

I created my card using a fabulous sketch from iSpy Sketches. Easy sketch and so much fun!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Good Morning! I have been so excited for this day to come. I love this week's sketch that it up at Tuesday Morning Sketches and there is a most amazing line up from the core team, our monthly Best of the Best guest designer and a couple of Stamp Fairy teamies. They are joining us because Stamp Fairy is our sponsor this week.

Let me show you my card, I am really proud of this one...

I bought an eCraft by Craftwell and I have to say that I haven't been super happy with my purchase. I thought I'd found the perfect electronic cutter, but it's not been very friendly and I have been very discouraged. But I am persevering and I am determined to make this work for me. I changed the blade, even though the one that came with the machine was supposed to be new and that helped some. So I found this svg cut for free at a blog I think was called Cards by Bird - the border is beautiful. Anyway, it worked really well with my eCraft and I'm feeling a bit happier with the machine. I am thinking that their eBosser is cool, but that's not something I'll be investing my limited dollars into.

I do hope you'll join us this week, it's an easy sketch and so much fun. I hope you agree.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Good Morning! I hope you had a great weekend. I did. It was over too quickly, but pretty nice. Except the news that my friend's dog bit my son. But the dog didn't break the skin, thank God for blue jeans. He's sore and bruised and the dog is in a lot of hot water by her owner. Other than that, the weekend was good. I'm also on my last week of my current job and I get to move to my new one. I am thrilled!

So this week's challenge is up for Paper Pretties and we're playing with Fall Inspiration again. What a fun challenge and I had a lot of fun playing with ARTish's newest image, Linden.

I found a great sketch on PCP and some awesome paper in my stash. His swirl of leaves was perfect for one of elements on the sketch. Although Linden does come with some perfect sentiments, I ended up using a stamp from another company, I was getting tired of printing the sentiment over and over again only to ruin it when trying to cut it from the Die-namics dies I wanted to use.

I hope to see you over at Paper Pretties this week. Enjoy your Monday.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Hi there! Happy Saturday evening. I hope the weekend is going well for you so far. I'm not doing too bad. I got to play a little (a lot less than I'd hoped) today. But there is still the evening after dinner...

Anyway, I did make another Halloween Treat bag to play along with another couple of challenges. I haven't played with ATS Wednesday challenge in way too long. Also Sketches by Carly and then I found out that it's her last sketch. That was heartbreaking news. That little girl (I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate being called that) really inspires me. And I'm also playing along with my friend Joni's challenge at Raise the Bar, Which is Witch?

So here's what I made, ATS said to many anything but a card, so I went with an envelope gift bag. These are so easy to make. A snip there and a few score lines with my handy dandy Scor-Pal and this bag was in the bag!

This is the front view. I colored up a Sugarplums Witch in her stylin' witchy costume and then added an appropriate sentiment. This bag was really easy to do.

And here's the side view so you can see, it really is a bag. And who knew the yucky manila envelope would be the perfect color match for the paper that I used. I don't even know where this paper came from. Michael's I'm guessing. My sister sent me some a looong time ago and this is what I had left.

I hope you enjoy my bagalope and you are inspired to make one, too. Oh, yeah, I didn't come up with this idea all on my own. I was inspired by ATS DT member and friend Sheri Gilson. You can see her sweet creation here.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hi everyone! Good morning. I love Thursday, we're on the down side of this week and it's nearing payday! That's always good, right?

This week's challenge at Delightful Challenges, we're making Halloween Treats. I went with a fun little gable box that I made following a tutorial on SCS. I am so happy that I got the updated version of the Scor-Pal board, because it made it so easy to make it.

Isn't this fun? As I said the Scor-Pal made it so easy to put this box together and of course, I wouldn't use any other adhesive but Scor-Tape to hold it all together. I decorated the box with an image from Halloween Accessories and then added a gift tag that features a sentiment from Halloween Sentiments. This is a perfect size box to fill with chocolates and candy corn.

To color it, I just colored in the grass with a dark green color, gray for the tombstone and yellow for the moon. I then created a mask by printing the image again on a post it note, fussy cut it and then laid it over the main image and began sponging away. It's slightly larger than the moon so that I could get a little moonglow around it.

I am also entering this into The Pink Elephant challenge, they're making Halloween Treats, too. And I'll be barely in time for Crazy 4 Challenges challenge for Sweet Treats. This is a popular challenge, don't forget Raisin Boat is also doing the same theme, too.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great week so far. So I'm adding another post today, because my friend just told me about a movie called The Company. It's a ballet movie that looks really good. So it put this page into mind while I'm waiting for Hollyanne to get out of dance class.

I created this scrapbook page for a few reasons. I made it using my Raisin Boat stamps, the picture is my daughter's favorite {stock} photo she found on the internet. I think it's a model photo for pointe shoes. She dreams of being in pointe class. She's just not ready yet. And my page layout is pink. So since October is Think Pink month for BAC, I thought now it the perfect time to share this.

I can't remember where I found the sketch for the layout, but I am entering this in the challenge at The Pink Elephant. Which is Think Pink.

Here's a close up of the sweet stamps from Raisin Boat, the flowers are from the Henna Art stamp set. So pretty!

I am also throwing in my hat for consideration to the TPE Scrap Team call. I need a reason to start scrapbooking again. So why not be on a fun team and have that extra encouragement to get back to playing with the albums again.

Good Morning! Oh my goodness, I am so happy that its Tuesday - we have a super fun and really easy sketch this week at TMS, just what I needed. We also have a great sponsor with us this week, like we do every week. This week's challenge is sponsored by Cindy, owner of StampingScrapping (dot com). Cindy was also very sweet to send me a stamp set to play with, too.

So here's my card....

This stamp set is called All Dolled & Dressed Up. This set is so pretty and so girly and so unique. Cindy has created a Spellbinders Dies set that coordinates perfectly with it. Yep, Cindy designs for Spellbinders! Wow!! But I don't have the die so I had to hand cut my image. It's not perfect, but neither am I so I think it turned out pretty good. You? I also made it in pink to help promote the Virtual Birthday party that is still going on. You have plenty of time to make your pink birthday (or whatever) card to link up for a fun blog candy surprise. And don't forget to visit the birthday girl, Theresa, she's got A-MAZE-ZING blog candy available, too.

So my card also features a technique that is my Monthly Card Traders group challenge for October. Wax Resist - basically you embossing a piece of wax paper with your Cuttlebug (or the like) folder and then iron the wax paper on the glossy side of a piece of glossy card stock. Then with a brayer, or sponge (I did direct to paper) to ink up the card stock and then wipe off the excess. The ink doesn't stick to the waxy parts and it looks really pretty. It actually looks like it's another piece of the background paper I used.

OK, enough of listening to me talk. Go have fun, create your cards. Be sure to hop along with Cindy and her team, too.

Monday, October 15, 2012

** Be sure to scroll down for the new Raisin Boat Monthly Challenge **

Hi there! Thanks for coming back for 2nd post. I really missed not playing with Paper Pretties last week. I hope you joined in the challenge and had fun with it.

This week, we're playing with color. Orange, Black and 1 other color. I think I went with a lot of other color. But I so pleased with my results. This card was my monthly card traders challenge and at first, it really kicked my bahooty. But I got it figured out, it's called a Photo Puzzle Card and the directions are from Sandi Genovese which was free for a minute but now you gotta $10 for it. My card features three of the new images by ARTish called Twice Bitten, Our Boy Frank and Mums the Word. Check it out...

Here's the cover, this is Twice Bitten. The front layout is based on a sketch by The Sweet Stop. I love all the colors. I used every scrap of Halloween paper I could find in my stash.

This is what the card looks like on the inside.

When you fully extend the card, you see Our Boy Frank. But then close it up and then part the middle...

And here's Mums the Word. I'm also entering this into my friend Joni's challenge Raise the Bar. It's not alotta pumpkin, but this sweet little mummy has his pumpkin treat-or-treat bucket in hand and he's ready to go!

Cute?! I think so. I think I'll do a tutorial that's free. This was a fun card to create after I got it figured out. Anyway, I hope you join us at Paper Pretties for the challenge and check out all the other great new images, too.

Good Morning! I hope you all had a great weekend. I did, for the most part. I finished my sister's project, so that was a very good thing.

It's time for a new challenge at Raisin Boat. This time we're making Halloween Treats. That'll be a very popular challenge this month. Remember, there's a new rule, you can use whatever stamps you'd like but if you use Raisin Boat stamps then it counts as a double entry.

I created this tin with some labels and the cutest Halloween stamp set ever. This is Sheet Happens. Now, my intent was to create this as mosaic - it didn't work out quite right, but I still love the results. The tins are available in the store, too.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Hi everyone! Happy Sunday evening. I just thought I'd post a card real quick that I made to play along with a couple of challenges. This is my reward for finally finishing up my sister's birthday project and taking it to the post office. Whoo-hoo!! I can't wait for her to share it with everyone, but I didn't take photos because she needs to be the first to see it.

Anyway, so I created a card to play along with the sketch at My Favorite Things and the challenge at The Kraft Journal (just in under the wire!) - reuse/recycle. My take on the challenge is scraps and recycling a card base of a card I didn't like so much.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Good Morning! How are you? I'm having a good week so far, yesterday was definitely not a mean people Monday, so that was a good thing.

Just a reminder about Theresa's month long Pink Birthday challenge. There's some pretty cool stuff available and then if you want some rocking it out big time cool stuff, go visit Theresa's blog for blog candy.

This week's challenge is up at TMS and it's a Judged Challenge. New sketch and the twist is the Letter E. For me it meant Elegant, {matching} Envelope and Extra Olives....

Sassy Studio Designs is our sponsor this week so I chose to work with Pin Up Martini. I have a harder time with the sexier images, but my stab at isn't too bad. I forgot one element of the sketch. Oops. But I've been so busy working on another project, my card wasn't made until last night.

This was a pretty fun image to color up. Coloring Jessica's images is like me being a kid and coloring in the Barbie coloring book my sister had and it was always a special treat when she would let me color in it.

Come join us for both challenges - combine them for double the impact. See you there.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Hello! Welcome to the Virtual Birthday Party for Theresa. I am so glad you came. If you're here because you just came to visit me, well, let me tell you what you walked into. Today is my sister Theresa's 50th birthday. But what makes this even more special is that we're also celebrating her 5th birthday of being a Breast Cancer Survivor.

So some friends have gotten together on the Tuesday Morning Sketches blog to throw her a party. There's even a challenge, too, that will run the month of October. All you have to do is create a birthday & pink themed card or project and stop by and visit the birthday girl and you're in the running for a fabulous package of blog candy. I won't picture it because I keep adding to it. LOL But I will tell you that the wonderful, Diana Crick of Scor-Pal donated a Scor-Pal score board to the candy box!

So here's my card that I made for my sister....

The happy birthday is on the inside. I'd made this for the MFT challenge a couple of weeks ago, so it's been posted to SCS, but my sister never goes there and she didn't say anything because its on FB, too, but I don't have the inside pictured because it's already personalized with a private message.

And here's one of my gifts to her....

I have always wanted a tattoo but I never got one because I never knew what I wanted. Then it came to me the other day that with Theresa turning 50 and 5 I needed to do something like this. Sassy is what my kids call her, but I like that it's not only her name but an attitude. LOL I will eventually have the flowers colored with a favorite color that represents my 3 children, my Mom, my other sister Karin and myself. I don't think after that's done, I'll be getting any more. The artist I went to did a phenom job, I am so happy with this. Now if it'll just stop stinging! LOL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THERESA!! I love you! And I am happy that you're still here! And I do still have one other gift for you, but it's going to be late. I'm so sorry.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Hi there! Happy Thursday. I hope you're week is going well. Mine as been overwhelmingly busy and I'm still not going to accomplish what I was hoping to. Well, I will, but I will be late. Ugh! I hate being late.

Anyway, this week's challenge is up at Delightful Challenges and this week we're playing with Winter Holidays and the new release. My card features an adorable digi called Droppin' in Ted...

I did another CAS card and I am super stoked about the results. I love the stark contrast between the white and bright colors of image. This little cutie, in my head, is wearing a white snowsuit and holiday accessories. I embossed the base and the spritzed it with shimmer spray. Hopefully you can see it in the picture below.

I did create my card based (loosely) on the sketch from Friday Sketch Challenge. I did remove a couple of elements because it didn't lend to my CAS theme. Can you see the shimmer?

Well, I'm going to keep my post short today, but I wish you a great Thursday! Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Good Morning! Happy Tuesday! We have another great sketch posted at the Tuesday Morning Sketches blog. And we're being sponsored by Paper Pretties. Yep, two days in a row do you get to see these adorable images. I'm using one of my favorite - this is A Beary Good Book....

I had first envisioned this card to have a removable bookmark, but sadly, I ran out of time to get my cards done. I have taken a HUGE project that I will hopefully get to share with you soon - but we'll have to see how things go.

I kept my card fairly Clean and Simple. CAS is good, right? I love all the added texture with the embossing. I also am playing along with a challenge that is fairly new to me. This is from The Kraft Journal. The more I play with Kraft card stock, the more comfortable I am getting with it. The Kraft Outlet is a store that is everything you could want in Kraft... card stock, paper, envelopes, packaging, labels and twine. Whew! You will think you've died and gone to Kraft heaven when you visit this store. So I am playing along with their challenge which is CAS! How well did this work out.

So come along and play with us at Tuesday Morning Sketches and combine your sketch with another challenge for double the fun.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Good Morning! Happy Monday and it is a Pretty one... the Paper Pretties challenge is up and this week we are letting....

Fall Inspire us to create

Now this could mean colors, a Fall theme or a lovely Autumn photo in which you draw inspiration from. Which is sort of what I did. Here, take a look....

This is Adam, one of the newest digis by ARTish. Now the actual image is Adam juggling the apples, but I chose to fussy cut Adam and the apples in the air just didn't work for me. I also printed this really pretty picture of an apple orchard I found on the internet. The layout was inspired by this week's sketch at The Sweet Stop.

So how will Fall inspire you? I can't wait to see what you come up with, head on over to the blog to play along.

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About Me

I am a mother of 3 amazing young adults! I am a proud momma of a Navy Sailor, a 2nd year college student and a boy entering college soon. In my spare time, I love to cook, read, stamp and make 3D paper projects. I've been a papercrafter for 22+ years and I love every minute of it. I decided I didn't have enough to do, so I also "own" a challenge blog, Tuesday Morning Sketches.
If you need to reach me, please feel free to email me at stampedbym@gmail.com

Copyright 2006-2018

All cards, scrapbook pages, photographs and text are owned by Melissa Craig. I have created the cards and pages with copyrighted material (Papertrey Ink, DRS Designs, MFT Stamps, Hero Arts and many others) and are for personal use only. I share these ideas with you, you are free to CASE the cards but ask that you do not submit for contests or publication. Also, please give credit where credit is due. If you CASE something of mine, please tell others where you got the idea. Thanks!! Happy Stamping and inky hugs.